Media – Tisser

THIS WOMAN’S NOT-FOR-PROFIT HAS HELPED OVER 10,000 ARTISANS IN 18 STATES

The Tisser Artisan Trust, founded by Megha Phansalkar, has generated livelihoods for 1000+ rural clusters in 18 states and has helped incorporate new styles and techniques in their craft. It has also introduced tech for improving artisan connect.

An urban regional planner with more than 20 years of experience in the development sector, Megha Phansalkar has worked with the World Bank since 2007 on multiple water sanitation and livelihood projects.

As part of her work, Megha realized that indigenous weavers and artisans suffered as they lacked design and marketing support, which left them at the mercy of exploitative middlemen and without a stable source of livelihood.
“In 2015, I went ahead and sought to address this issue by founding my own not-for-profit trust to help artisans generate a much-needed source of income. It realized the need to incorporate modern style and techniques into the traditional skills of artisans,” she tells Her Story. Read More

With Tisser Artisan Trust (Tisser means, to weave), Megha’s aim is to also bring in innovation and form a unique model by supporting product design and diversification, introducing tech for improving artisan connect, and working on end-to-end cluster development.

Tisser has a network of more than 10,000 artisans, groups, and SHGs across South Asia. Working in more than 100 art forms, it generates livelihoods for 1000+ rural clusters in 18 states of India with more than 1,000 products made using traditional and cultural art forms.

“Given that women’s economic empowerment is central to poverty reduction and shared prosperity, investing in capacity enhancement and improved access to new skills, ﬁnancial and digital opportunities for girls and women is one of the key focus areas of her trust’s work in India,” Megha explains.

The Tisser Artisan footprint extends across states like Bihar – Madhubani West Bengal – Tant & Jamdani Chhattisgarh – Tussar Odisha – Pattachitra, Sambalpuri, Sabai Telangana – Chilara Handloom, Kalamkari Tamil Nadu – Kanjeevaram Karnataka – Chennapatna toys Maharashtra – Warli, Khadi, Bamboo, Potter and a community stitching center Rajasthan – Hand embroidery and tie-dye Megha elaborates,

“To ensure that the contemporary demands of the consumers are met, the Tisser design team personally looks into the products developed by the rural artisans and weavers across India and then decides the best designs and quality control to attract not only local but also international consumers.”

“The Tisser Artisan Trust is an entrepreneurial venture, functioning as a tool for social upliftment of rural clusters of India. We manufacture handloom and handcrafted products and has till now designed over 1,000 customized products.

Our current catalog has more than 2,500 SKUs, 50 handloom fabrics, 20 forms of textile painting, and 200 forms of handicrafts,” she adds.

According to Megha, the first two Cs–Construct and Capacity–are carried out in large part during the onboarding and training stages, during which women are identified, collectivized, and provided with the material, infrastructure, and training they require in relation to their craft, entrepreneurship, business operations, personal health and wellness, and gender equality.

“These components will be addressed in the work plan for setting up producer enterprises and training identified producers. Once PEs have been mobilized and trained, the results of the Construct and Capacity components of the model–aggregated producers, infrastructure, and new skill sets–will remain constant, aided by a state and professional management team,” she says.

Going forward, Tisser’s sustainability strategy for PEs after the withdrawal of external funders is that they will be independent businesses with the ability to raise and manage their own capital and employ their own creative producers and administrative team.

In order to make this happen, PEs and the creative producers within them need access to design material (Create), markets (Channel), and digital resources (Connect). Megha elaborates, “Connect refers to the digital platform, which comprises of Community Apps for Producer Group in local languages designed to enable more effective market access, and Southasiaartisans.com a producer-owned e-commerce portal.

The apps provide access to training materials, design inputs, streamlining production, and tracking purchases and sales. While Tisser will remain a longer-term partner with respect to maintaining the Connect, Channel, and creating pieces, the ultimate goal is for the producer group to become self-sufficient and independent enterprises without any external financial support.”

The impact has been far-reaching. Fifty clusters have been empowered, 100 producer groups established, 10,000 artisan families supported, and 100,000 women benefited. Tisser has also launched special initiatives like:

Har Dill Mein Bharat: Tisser started a social enterprise to bring focus on fair trade, eco-friendly, and genuine handcrafted products from rural India.

The company co-creates products with rural artisans through skill-building and design interventions and sells them in wholesale and retail markets.

Tisser has so far curated 1,000+ designer products by providing efficient end-to-end support to the artisans.

Har Ghar Mein Bharat: Here, the company decorates, furnishes, and creates home and office spaces with all the Indian art form products, indirectly supporting artisans across India.

Women for Women: An initiative to link producer groups with urban women enterprises.

Apart from these, Tisser also entered into a partnership with NGO Samhita to assist the most vulnerable stakeholders in their recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.

Tisser, with support from Maan Deshi, Mavin, and MSrn, led a project supporting artisans in pottery clusters as part of the “REVIVE” Project in Raigad, Ratnagiri.

The Warli Tribal Painting Cluster Tisser, with support from Maan Deshi, Mavin, and MSrn, led a project supporting artisans in pottery clusters as part of the Revive project to scale the potential of Warli art with the help of women in rural communities in Maharashtra.

“There is an urgent need to revive consumers’ interest in crafts and make crafts relevant to increasingly urban lifestyles. Efforts are needed to sensitize the emerging middle-class consumer to the history and value of crafts in India to ensure a robust domestic market,” Megha says.

“Building an ecosystem of collaboration will align the roles of different stakeholders each of whom can support artisans in different ways. Leading academic institutions such as the National Institute for Fashion Technology (NIFT) have a major role to play in the crafts sector,” she adds.

Article published in Business Standard on 4th July 2023 about Dr. Megha Phansalkar

In the dynamic realm of business, a group of remarkable women entrepreneurs is fearlessly shaping the future with their visionary leadership and unwavering determination. The article published six inspiring women who are making a profound impact in various industries in 2023. From revolutionizing the beauty and jewelry sectors to empowering artisans and providing comprehensive wealth management solutions.

Dr. Megha Phansalkar

Introducing Dr. Megha Phansalkar, a fearless entrepreneur shaping the future of business in the development sector for over 20 years.

As an Urban Regional Planner, she specializes in community-led development in water supply, sanitation, and livelihoods. Dr. Phansalkar founded the ‘Tisser Artisan Trust,’ empowering handicraft and handloom artisans across South Asia through a value chain approach.

She established AUREUS, dedicated to enhancing urban and regional environments. With extensive experience, she serves as Principal Advisor for Projects at WMRC, All India Institute for Local Self-Government, Mumbai, and Taru Leading Edge, Delhi.

Driven by her passion, she represented South Asia in the Steering Committee of WSSCC (Water Supply Sanitation Collaborative Council).

Dr. Megha Phansalkar fearlessly shapes the future of business in 2023, making a profound impact in the development sector with her expertise and dedication.

The following details are published in the Women’s Economic Forum

An Urban Regional Planner with an experience of 20 years in the development sector. Dr. Megha Phansalkar specializes in community-led development in rural water supply, rural/ urban sanitation, and rural development with a focus on livelihoods. She works with World Bank since 2007 on multiple water sanitation and Livelihood projects
She is a social entrepreneur and founder at ‘Tisser’supporting rural Artisans across 18 States, thus helping thousands of artisan families earn a livelihood through an enterprise model. Tisser supports end-to-end value chains from creating producer groups to making unique products for urban consumers.
Elected to Steering Committee, in Geneva for three years to represent South Asia in WSSCC (Water Supply Sanitation Collaborative Council, Geneva) WSSCC is a body with UNOPS. She is also the chair of the Governance Committee.
As an advisor with CUI (Centre for Urban Innovation), she helps the center pilot innovation and takes them to scale to make urban cities a better place to live.
Her work experience with Non-Governmental Organizations, Government Departments, and International Agencies brings a multi-dimensional, multi-stakeholder approach to working for partnerships and convergence to address developmental issues.
Dr Phansalkar is a gold medalist graduate and she is trained as a Doctorate in ‘System Design for Resource Planning and Management’ under a National fellowship. She has a Master’s in Planning from the Center for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT), Ahmedabad Master’s in Geography, and also a Master’s in Business Administration. She is also a trained national-level horse rider and has received the best rider trophy twice at the RDD Camp, New Delhi.

Click to read

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business?

I am an Urban Regional Planner with an experience of 20 years in the development sector. Dr. Megha Phansalkar specializes in community-led development in rural water supply, rural/urban sanitation, and rural development with a focus on livelihoods.

Focusing on specific work with the ability to multitask has always been my forte. My work experience with Non-Governmental Organizations, Government Departments, and International Agencies brings a multi-dimensional, multi-stakeholder approach to working for partnerships and convergence helped to address developmental issues.

My work in the livelihood space brought me closer to the artisan segment and resulted in starting a social entrepreneur supporting rural artisans across 18 states, thus helping 10000 networked artisan families earn a livelihood through the enterprise model.

I realized that with the changing of time-old art of handloom & handicraft are getting old and due to lack of innovation, are becoming redundant making the lives of these artists and weavers difficult.

Craftspeople or artisans are the backbone of the non-farm rural Indian economy, with an estimated 7 million artisans according to official figures (and up to 200 million artisans according to other sources) engaged in craft production to earn a livelihood. However, they are a slowly perishing breed. The sector is highly disorganized with a lack of institutional support and constraint of low capital, and poor exposure to technology, designs, and market intelligence.

Seeing the need of the hour, Tisser aimed to bring a new wave of innovation and sought a unique model by supporting product design & diversification, bringing IT innovations for improving artisan connect, and working on end-to-end cluster development.

Tisser in French means ‘to weave’. We support weavers and craftsmen who make products using traditional techniques, skills, and hand processes consisting of the core of Incredible India! We tap the artisans and products across the country and promote rural livelihood, thereby providing a platform for them to directly connect with the globe. Our artisans found an unmatched expression of our splendid culture through the cherished legacy of handmade products. Our core value is to respect the producer and the customer both. Profits earned from sales in part go back to support the education of the girl child of the weavers and artisans. It is our humble tribute to these golden hands that continue to weave respect, reputation, and riches for India.

At the core of it all, it is helping the handloom and handicraft communities of India do what they haven’t been able to do until now. From 100 artisans and limited products when it began, to 10,000 artisans and 300+ products on offer, Tisser has come a long way but has a much longer way to go. The idea is to run the whole operation like a business, with the profits being used to provide a better life to the communities, and supporting initiatives for girls’ education etc. In order to do so, a number of challenges have to be overcome. The years of neglect have resulted in these crafts and techniques disappearing from the public consciousness, with the consumer moving on to ostensibly trendier wares

The vision we have embarked: on Equitable distribution of resources and better prosperity in Rural and Urban India. A mission we aim to achieve:

• Network rural artisans/groups towards creating small enterprises pan India

• Strengthen the handicraft/handloom value chain through ICT innovations

• Harness the transformative power of rural clusters for impact business model

Tisser has put its foot forward in a strong value chain approach and supports 10,000 artisans across 18 states. Generated livelihood & social status upliftment for artisans, especially women. Created better opportunities in the future for family entrepreneurs. Provided an alternate and poise to be the primary source of family income.

Networked with 10,000 artisans across 18 states of the country and mainly working in Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Northeastern states, and southern states of Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh.
Created a range of new products in 1000 designed products
Conducted end the end cluster development with 2000 artisans intensively in Maharashtra and Formed 50 Producer Organizations in Maharashtra
Worked with 8000 artisans through skill-building on product design.

The core of Tisser’s work is to generate livelihoods and contribute to economic growth in personal as well as national interest. Tisser’s approach is to provide ‘End to End support’ which includes Mobilization-training-product design-production-PO formation. Not only generating livelihood but we also believed that our artisan should not be dependent on us for our lifetime. For the sustainability of the rural artisan and to encourage the common good and collectivism, we went one step further and formed the Producer Organisation (PO). The regular flow of income is ensured by market linkage activities and partnerships with various governmental and non-governmental organizations to get their orders and required funds for revolving their PO activities.

Tisser ensures the economic growth of the artisan in this competitive sector by providing eco-friendly products, unique varied designed products so that we should reach a maximum audience with great variety and appeal through the products.

Great Companies: What are the various products and services provided by Tisser?

We at Tisser work with rural artisans all over India. Our connection with them has not been limited to home decor, artifacts, and utility items, but also textiles and the fashion industry. We began by empowering rural women artisans in small clusters and have expanded to many states in India. In the three years of our operations, we have not only grown within the textile & fashion industry, but home decor and furnishings have been an intrinsic part of our brand. We have: Generated livelihood & social status upliftment for artisans, especially women. Created better opportunities in the future for family entrepreneurs. Provided an alternate and poise to be the primary source of family income.

Tisser Rural Handicrafts is a social venture established to uplift the lives of rural Indian artisans. It has created a brand name known for its honesty, fair trade, and product innovations. With a stronghold in creating handloom and handicraft products, we have forayed into the Home Decor & Interiors area with the same ideals. Tisser’s Home Decor & Interiors space is designed and hand-crafted by rural artisans across India. Our endeavor is to provide value-chain support for these craftsmen to showcase their creations that remain otherwise unknown. We at Tisser wanted to create products that would reflect the various art forms of India. By utilizing elements from these traditional art forms in contemporary products, we aim to bring a little part of India into your spaces, homes, and offices alike.

Our innovative model works around:

End-to-End cluster development: Creating artisan groups, skills training, marketing, and continuous handholding for all artisan clusters
Design intervention: Dedicated team of designers work on incorporating traditional art form into utilitarian products.
Product diversification: Expansion of artisan’s product portfolio, cataloging and marketing of all products on various platforms
Blockchain technology: Depicting artisan’s contribution and profit from a product; solution to provide transparency, traceability, auditability, immutability, security, and agility to smoothen processes
Raising awareness: Artisan stories, training programs and environment awareness.
Regional hubs for outreach: Regional hubs for extensive outreach to work directly with artisans.
Empowering for business: Tisser Team empowers the artisans by strengthening producer groups’ Self-Help Groups and their skills.
Fusion of clusters: Through our customized product line expanding from clothes to home.

Striking a Work-Life Balance is the Key to Rewriting the Rules

Dr. Phansalkar is a gold medalist in master’s in three subjects and a Doctorate in ‘System Design for Resource Planning and Management’ under a National fellowship. Her Ph.D. and one Masters degree were acquired post marriage. While doing her Ph.D. both kids were born and are now grown-up, independent individuals. She is also a trained national-level horse rider and has received the best rider trophy twice at the RDD Camp, New Delhi. She has a Masters in Planning from the Center for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT), Ahmedabad.

She is a social entrepreneur and founder of Tisser Artisans Trust. Hard work, a will to learn, and a passion to give back to society kept Megha going. An Urban Regional Planner with an experience of 20 years in the development sector, Dr.Megha Phansalkar specializes in community-led development in rural water supply, rural-urban sanitation, and rural development with a focus on livelihoods. Read More

She has worked with the World Bank since 2007 on multiple water sanitation and Livelihood projects. Megha was elected to the Steering Committee, in Geneva for three years to represent South Asia in WSSCC (Water Supply Sanitation Collaborative Council, Geneva) WSSCC is a body with UNOPS. As an urban planner, she works with multiple institutions to pilot innovations and take them to scale.

Megha realized that the indigenous weavers and artisans suffered as they lacked design and marketing support, which left them at the mercy of exploitative middlemen and without a stable source of livelihood. Hence, she went ahead and addressed this issue by founding her own not for profit trust which helped in trying to generate a much-needed source of income for these artists. The trust realized the need for incorporation of modern styles and techniques into the age-old traditional skills of the artisans. It aimed to bring a new wave of innovation and seek a unique model by supporting product design & diversification, bringing IT innovations for improving artisan connect, and working on end-to-end cluster development.

Known for women empowerment and skilling with innovation, Megha has been awarded multiple awards nationally and internationally. Her work experience with Non-Governmental Organizations, Government Departments and International Agencies bring a multi-dimensional, multi-stakeholder approach in working for partnerships and convergence to address developmental issues.

Women’s Empowerment (WE) and Gender Equity are not merely the inclusion of women in development programs as beneﬁciaries. Rather, women’s empowerment goes beyond and can be assessed in terms of the combined effects:

Agency of Women – knowledge, skills, self-esteem, personal aspirations
Structures – societal norms, customs, policies, laws, institutional arrangements (III)
Relationships – power dynamics within households, with family members; support from others.

To enable the women to be producers and earn regular income in a sustainable manner, and scale up operations, the following are necessary:

Continuous improvement of knowledge and skills: Creating more occasions for practicing their craft will help women hone their skills. With the gap between training and the provision of necessary support and infrastructure for women to start production or launch enterprises, there is a need for more frequent training to be conducted to ensure that women’s skills are up-to-date. Creating more opportunities for practicing their crafts through workshops and knowledge improvement programs, and exposure about Warli art will help the women gain new knowledge and upgrade their skills. Otherwise, with long gaps between the training and practical applications, there is a risk that skills may be forgotten.

Providing space and infrastructure: As the program scales and more women get trained and start practicing their crafts at a commercial level, there is a need for providing women with the necessary tools, equipment, and space. Such a space will enable true equity among the women who currently, in a few locations, are dependent on common spaces which are subject to environmental and social vagaries due to their nonexistence.

Access to capital: At present, there are no avenues for trained women to access capital from formal institutions. Given that access to capital will be essential for many of these women to start small businesses, it may be worthwhile to explore ﬁnancing options that these women can take advantage of.

Institutional linkages: To create sustainable and scalable interventions, there is a need to create strong institutional linkages with different departments, trade associations, retailers, ﬁnancing organizations, and donors. As the program expands, without continued support, these activities will stagnate and the linkages to markets, capital, and continued mentoring and support will be at risk.

The impact is big:

With Megha’s trust, women artisans have acquired a level of self-esteem and conﬁdence that has allowed them to take greater ownership of their own life and use their agency in family affairs.
Given that women’s economic empowerment is central to poverty reduction and shared prosperity, investing in capacity enhancement and improved access to new skills, ﬁnancial and digital opportunities for girls and women is one of the key focus areas of her trust’s work in India.

India has a wide repertoire of handlooms and weaving cultures. Megha developed a unique model focusing on a 360-degree change that ensures that all facets of Indian Handloom Production and Traditional Weaving are enhanced and expanded.

Developing key enterprises in Clusters – an important aspect of the trust’s operations – is essential for developing partnerships and ensuring livelihood generation possible for artisans across larger catchment areas.

Well-designed market-led products are key to artisans’ revival, product needs to be co-created with artisans.

The Nudge Institute

About the Organization

“Tisser India aims to provide sustainable livelihoods, income-generating opportunities, and access to professional support to rural artisans in India.

Tisser is an ecosystem player that works in artisan clusters pan India and helps in supply chain integration, sets processes to empower artisans, streamlines producer groups, and facilitates the entrepreneurial ecosystem by working with the producer groups.

Tisser has a network of more than 10,000 artisans, groups, and SHGs across South Asia. Working in more than 100 art forms, Tisser generates livelihoods for 1000+ rural clusters in 18 states of India with more than 1,000 products made using traditional and cultural art forms. Read More

World art Community

INTRODUCTION

Tisser Rural Handicrafts is a social venture established to uplift the lives of rural Indian artisans. Tisser shares the mission of fighting poverty through livelihood generation in the rural artisan clusters.

Through a supply chain of strongly connected 10000+ artisans through cluster development and harnessing cluster entrepreneurs. With a presence in 18 states and 10000 Artisans/ SHGs. Tisser provides end-to-end support to the artisans.

We are creating a base for skilled, sustainable rural employment, and preserving India’s traditional handicrafts in the process.

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About Tisser

Tisser in French means ‘to weave’. Tisser supports weavers and craftsmen who make products using traditional techniques, skills, and hand processes consisting of the core of Incredible India!

Tisser India started as a handicrafts and rural products wholesale and retail establishment located in Mumbai, Maharashtra in September 2016 as a Trust.

Tisser Artisan Trust plans to capture the interest of customers around the world with its wide range of handicrafts, clothing, and accessories produced by rural artisans. The company plans to build a strong market position by establishing a dedicated supply chain from rural artisans and building a strong network with contemporary designers and other stakeholders.

We work with rural artisans to bring them directly into the ladder of the supply chain market through design and marketing support. Visit our site: http://www.tisser.in
In the first year of our operation, we have partnered with around 10000 artisans from 12 different states of India. We have an inventory of about 300 products and the number is increasing.

The revenue for the first year of our operation has been 50 lakhs which have the potential to grow by 6 crores in coming years. Tisser has an operational office and dispatch unit with regular staff.

BEAUTIFYING HOMES AND GENERATING LIVELIHOOD IN RURAL INDIA BY INNOVATING AGE-OLD HANDICRAFT TRADITIONS.

Dr. Megha Phansalkar, Tisser Rural Handicrafts
Based in Mumbai, Tisser Rural Handicrafts Pvt Ltd and Tisser Artisan Trust was started by Dr. Megha Phansalkar in 2015 as a social venture to uplift the lives of rural Indian artisans.

While working as a consultant for the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) in the World Bank, she realized that there are thousands of Indian artisans whose livelihood solely depends on handicrafts and handlooms, the knowledge of which has passed down as a legacy in their families for generations.

With changing times, these art forms and handlooms are getting dated and due to lack of innovation, are becoming redundant.

“Seeing the need of the hour, we adopted a unique model by supporting artisans with product design and diversification through IT-enabled innovations,” she says.

They do this by expanding artisans’ product portfolios by cataloging and marketing their products on various platforms.

They use blockchain technology for the supply chain by depicting artisan contribution and profit from a product. They raise awareness by featuring artisan stories, training programs, and product stories on social media to provide a background of the effort that goes into making a product.

“We have helped improve artisan connects, by working on end-to-end cluster development,” she adds. Initially, the biggest challenge for her was to get the vast disorganized artisan community onto a single platform and streamline the demand as well as the marketing resources.

“The leanings in the initial stage are immense: products need better packaging, prices have to be competitive, it is necessary to create your own brand, people like new designs, fusions are encouraged.” Tisser products are sold online and offline on B2B and B2C platforms.

The B2B clients include resellers, distributors, shop-in-shops, event managers, and online marketplaces. B2C clients are exhibitions and retail stores. Megha says that Tisser provides end-to-end support, unlike competitors. “Online marketplaces have middlemen and no original products which leads to marked-up prices.

Bulk traders and event managers have middlemen and do not offer customization. Retail stores also do not provide any customization. Producer groups, although willing to customize, lack the design support to compete in the market. We start from artisan mobilization to design and product interventions and customization, coupled with marketing support through online and offline portals.”

According to Megha, who has a doctorate in IT, technology is an important aspect of the business and should be explored on a regular basis. They have developed a technologically advanced platform for artisans to upload their product inventory directly to the Tisser website. They won the Manthan South Asia Award in 2018 for this innovation.

They are also working with Vyoma Software to develop a Distributed Ledger (DLT) based supply-chain solution which will provide transparency to customers to make informed decisions and give greater exposure to the artisans and their work. In the last three years, Tisser has formed a network of more than 10,000 artisans, the majority being women, connected with more than 1,800 self-help groups across 18 Indian states, generated employment of more than 80,000 man-days in a year, and designed over 1,000 customized products.

Through the Tisser Artisan Trust, they have created fair pricing for the artisan community, encouraged social entrepreneurship, and supported the education of girl children in the artisans’ families. Megha has bagged several awards like the Indira Gandhi Award for Women Entrepreneurship, and Social Entrepreneur of the Year by SP Jain College of Management, among others.

They have also been mentored by Thomson Reuters, Procter and Gamble, and the Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), among others. In the next five years, Tisser aspires to triple its strength in terms of revenue, brand value, and products through structured strategic intervention and partnerships.

“We want to increase the number of intensive dedicated clusters, from 50 in 2019 to 250 in a span of three years. We also want to establish a flagship store in 2019 and scale our franchise model from 5 to 25 stores pan India,” says Megha.

Mumbai: Indira Gandhi Memorable Award conferred on distinguished individuals.

Indira Gandhi Memorable Awards were presented to Bollywood actress and social activist Juhi Chawla, actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, international athlete Kavita Raut, writer and poetess Kavita Mahajan, educationist Farida Lambe, business women Dr Megha Phansalkar and editor Rahi Bhide during a function held at Y B Chavan Centre, Nariman Point, here on Thursday November 20.